Legendary Arsenal boss Arsene Wenger insists Liverpool have “destroyed their midfield” in order to accommodate summer signing Florian Wirtz.

The Reds made the perfect start to the new season by winning their first five Premier League matches before a nightmare month saw them lose their grip on top spot.

Liverpoollost four Premier League matches in a row to hand Arsenal control of the title race with the Gunners now seven points ahead of the third-placed Reds.

Arne Slot’s men have got back on track in the last couple of matches with wins over Aston Villa and Real Madrid giving Liverpool fans hope for the rest of the season.

One area of the team that has been particularly disappointing is midfield with Germany international Wirtz coming into the side after a huge-money move from Bayer Leverkusen in the summer.

Wirtz has struggled to impact matches since joining and Wenger thinks Liverpool have “destroyed their midfield” in order to satisfy his demands to play as the No 10.

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Wenger said on beIN Sports: “Liverpool?is an interesting example. When Wirtz had the choice between going to?Bayern Munich?or Liverpool, he said to Liverpool: ‘I come to you if I play No 10. I do not want to play wide.’

“Liverpool, to get him, they say okay. They started him and they destroyed their midfield – which was (Ryan) Gravenberch, (Alexis) Mac Allister, (Dominik) Szoboszlai. To play Wirtz, they took Szoboszlai out.

“What have they done against?Aston Villa? They have gone back to their midfield of last year. And tonight, they play Wirtz — but I’m sure that Wirtz will play on the side. The manager has said: ‘If you want to play again, you will have to play wide because I do not want to disturb the midfield.’

“That will be interesting to see tonight. Wirtz is back in the team but certainly will have to play left where he was when he played at Leverkusen.”

When asked about Wirtz’s performance against Real Madrid, Liverpool boss Arne Slot told reporters: “I’ve said it many times and I can say it one more time, but it is all up to everyone else to have a different opinion or the same opinion as I have.

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“If you come from a different league and you have to play every two days and there are so many away games need to be played against certain styles of play, you need to adapt to that. That goes almost for everyone, let alone for a player that’s 22.

“I think he’s working incredibly hard to adapt as soon as he can and he has been so unlucky throughout his career here at Liverpool because even today he created so many chances for the team. But the goal we scored wasn’t an assist or a goal from him.

“I wouldn’t even say give him a bit of time because we gave him already that time to adapt. I played him many times for him to adapt to the Premier League, but I didn’t play him every single game because that’s not what I do with almost any player, but also not with players that either missed pre-season, are very young or come from a different league.

“They need a little bit of time to adapt if you have two days’ rest after the [Eintracht] Frankfurt game and you have to go away to Brentford, that is different probably than having an away game in the Bundesliga or in the Eredivisie or in any other league in the world.

“This league is the best-played in the world, I think – all the 20 teams. So you can understand that so many great individuals and athletes are playing here, mainly from 25 to 30 and at some teams you also see 22-year-olds.”